Neural plasticity
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Approximately 70% of congenital deafness is attributable to genetic causes. Incidence of congenital deafness is known to be higher in families with consanguineous marriage. In this study, we investigated the genetic causes in three consanguineous Pakistani families segregating with prelingual, severe-to-profound deafness. ⋯ Our results showed that the genetic causes of deafness are highly heterogeneous. Even within a single family, the affected members with apparently indistinguishable clinical phenotypes may have different pathogenic variants.
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Pudendal neuralgia (PN) is a complex disease with various clinical characteristics, and there is no treatment showing definite effectiveness. This study is aimed at evaluating the clinical efficacy of ultrasound-guided high-voltage long-duration pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) for PN. Two cadavers (one male, one female) were dissected to provide evidence for localization of the pudendal nerve. ⋯ Six patients were treated with nonsteroidal drugs for a short time. All patients stopped taking medication finally. In conclusion, the ultrasound-guided high-voltage long-duration PRF approach not only reduced the pelvic pain caused by PN but also improved the quality of life by extending sitting time without nerve injury.
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Review Meta Analysis
Outcomes and Adverse Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation on the Ventral Intermediate Nucleus in Patients with Essential Tremor.
This study was aimed at identifying the potential outcome predictors, comparing the efficacy in patients with different tremor characteristics, and summarizing the adverse effect rates (AERs) of deep brain stimulation on the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM-DBS) for essential tremor (ET). ⋯ VIM-DBS is an efficient and safe surgical method in ET, and the efficacy was not affected by the body distribution of tremor, age at surgery, and disease duration. Lower preoperative FTM-TRS scores likely indicate greater improvement, and the effect of VIM-DBS declines over time.
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Cerebral Blood Flow and Its Connectivity Deficits in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury at the Acute Stage.
The influence of cognitive impairment after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on cerebral vascular perfusion has been widely concerned, yet the resting-state cerebral blood flow (CBF) connectivity alterations based on arterial spin labeling (ASL) in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) remain unclear. This study investigated region CBF and CBF connectivity features in acute mTBI patients, as well as the associations between CBF changes and cognitive impairment. ⋯ Our results suggest that acute mTBI patients exhibit both regional CBF abnormalities and CBF connectivity deficits, which may underlie the cognitive impairment of the acute mTBI patients.
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Cerebral plasticity is the ability of the central nervous system to reorganize itself in response to different injuries. The reshaping of functional areas is a crucial mechanism to compensate for damaged function. It is acknowledged that functional remodeling of cortical areas may occur also in glioma patients. ⋯ However, the association between these functional patterns and recovery of motor and language deficits still remains partially clear. A number of relevant methodological issues possibly affecting the finding generalization emerged, such as the complexity of plasticity outcome measures and the lack of large longitudinal studies. Future studies are required to further confirm these evidences on cortical plasticity in larger samples, combining both functional imaging and intraoperative mapping techniques in longitudinally evaluations.